Australia: unusual underwater creature filmed by divers - video

Australia to an average Kowalski is associated with koalas, kangaroos, beaks and possibly a whole bunch of deadly spiders, snakes and everything from which it is better to stay away. From a diving perspective it is a little better. All the “evil” lurking for us on land is not able to get us underwater, and there, in addition to the magnificent Great Barrier Reef, are true wonders of nature…

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One of these is a creature that the Eaglehawk Dive Centre team from Tasmania managed to film a few years ago. We are talking about pyrosomids. It is a colony of creatures that together look like a sizeable flexible tube. Each such tube is made up of hundreds of thousands of tiny organisms called zooids.

“Each pyrosomid is a collection of thousands of clones, each with the ability to replicate and attach to the colony,” explains marine biologist Rebecca Helm

These very rare magnificent colonies of creatures are able to aggregate in formations of up to 12m in length! Each of the zooids that form them feeds on its own by filtering water. The same process sets the pyrosomid in motion. According to New Scientist magazine, when the process stops, the colony can sink to a depth of 500-700m.

Pyrosomides get their name from their bioluminescent properties. Pyro – fire and soma – body. Thanks to the glandular cells at the end of their throats, they can produce blue-green light.

This amazing light inspired, among others, Thomas Huxley in the past to write:
“I have just seen the full moon in all its magnificence, and I have also seen smaller moons, beautiful pyrosomes, shining in the water like white hot cylinders”.

Source: iflscience.com